The students of Hogwarts and the wider wizarding world enjoy a nice butterbeer, which tastes just as good hot or cold. The Hobbits of the Shire fancy imbibing brown ale from The Green Dragon Inn. All great franchises have their signature drinks. For Star Wars, that drink has always been a nice cold glass of blue milk. But in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker eschewed that preservative filled swill and opted for an organic beverage, straight from the source. *Minor spoilers follow! *The Thala-Siren milking scene was a shocking one for both Rey and the audience who had to watch Mark Hamill drink green milk from a sea creature. But as it turns out, looks can be deceiving and the drink coming out of the Thala-Siren was actually not half bad. As The Last Jedi creature designer, Neal Scanlan explained:
It was designed to be able to breathe and there was a milk delivery system, on the inside. The guys on the inside could see what was happening on the outside, through monitors and a walkie system that we had, and Mark literally walked up, bent down, and milked his sea-sow. It made a lovely tasting drink, by the way. It wasn't as disgusting as it looked.
We've heard in the past that the milk was actually tinted with CG in post to make it more disgusting. So Scanlon's comment to Collider is just further evidence that Mark Hamill wasn't fighting off revulsion when he took that vitamin D straight to the head and proved to Rey why you should never meet your heroes. No wonder Luke has been hanging out on this island for so long. Ahch-To has a great view, not a ton of traffic, comes with a cleaning crew and all the drinks are free and delicious. Not a bad place to hang up your lightsaber. The fact that the Thala-Siren actually had guys with a monitor inside and the milk delivery system is incredible. This animatronic was built and helicoptered in so that this scene could be shot on location. That's pretty amazing and with all that you've got to figure making a gross-looking drink taste good is well within the creative team's force powers. After all if it was just a type of milk that's easy to color. I hate to break it to all the strawberry milk drinkers out there but milk's not supposed to be pink.
It is kind of funny to think about how much went into creating this scene practically. It paid off too. The strangest scenes in The Last Jedi have garnered as much discussion as the most intense ones. Milking the Thala-Siren, Kylo Ren's fashion statement, the Throne Room, each memorable, all for different reasons.
If this thing is truly a lovely tasting drink as Neal Scanlan mentioned, I wouldn't be surprised to see it bottled and sold to visitors in the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge parks, coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. My guess is people won't find it as disgusting when it comes in a plastic bottle. For all the latest in our ongoing series, 'What does it taste like?' keep it here on CinemaBlend.
